Elsevier

Enzyme and Microbial Technology

Volume 95, December 2016, Pages 118-127
Enzyme and Microbial Technology

Effect of gemini surfactant (16-6-16) on the synthesis of silver nanoparticles: A facile approach for antibacterial application

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enzmictec.2016.08.009Get rights and content

Abstract

In this report, we describe the effect of Gemini surfactants1, 6-Bis (N, N-hexadecyldimethylammonium) adipate (16-6-16) on synthesis, stability and antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). The stabilizing effect of Gemini surfactant and aggregation behavior of AgNPs was evaluated by plasmonic property and morphology of the AgNPs were characterized by UV–vis spectroscopy, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) techniques. Interestingly, the formation of quite mono-dispersed spherical particles was found. Apart from the stabilizing role, the Gemini surfactant has promoted the agglomeration of individual AgNPs in small assemblies whose Plasmon band features differed from those of the individual nanoparticles. The antibacterial activity of the synthesized AgNPs on Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterium viz., E. coli and S. aureus was carried out by plate count, growth kinetics and cell viability assay. Furthermore, the mechanism of antibacterial activity of AgNPs was tested by Zeta potential and DLS analysis, to conclude that surface charge of AgNPs disrupts the cells causing cell death.

Introduction

The emerging advances in nanotechnology led to the designing of engineered noble metal nanoparticles (NMNPs), which offer realand radically new opportunities in the field of biomedicine and material science [1], [2], [3], [4]. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of The most widely studied nanomaterials, exhibiting potential applications in high sensitivity bimolecular detection, catalysts, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), metal electrodes, microelectronics, and diagnostics and Plasmonic Photo Thermal Therapy (PPTT), catalytic activity, purification of water, surfaces and air [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10] also possessing broads pectrum antimicrobial activities toward Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria including viruses [11], [12], [13], [14], [15].

Indeed, several synthetic strategies have been formulated in order to successively fabricate the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using chemical reduction process [7], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22]. Other methods include thermal decomposition, micro-emulsion, pulsed laser ablation, chemical reduction method is highly, flexible simple and cost-effective to obtain AgNPs by altering the pair of reducing- capping agents. The controlling of capping agents (i.e., steric polymers, charged polymers, anionic, cationic and non-ionic surfactants, saccharine, proteins and gelatin) play a crucial role in the tuning the morphology of the synthesized AgNPs [7], [16], [17], [18], [20], [21]. Hence, the choosing of capping agent has great concern to design the monodisperse and biocompatible AgNPs.

The anionic surfactant, SDS were used in larger number of research works to tune the shapes [20]. In Our previous work on non-ionic surfactant (TX-100) [23] and cationic surfactant CTAC (cetyltrimethylammonium chloride) [24] stabilized AgNPs explains the formation kinetics of monodispersed spherical AgNPs through critical micelle concentration (CMC) and cloud point (CP) investigations [25].

The fundamental application problem of AgNPs is connected with the sufficient stability of their dispersions allowing the prevention of the aggregation process because the generation of spacious aggregates leads to a loss of the antibacterial activity [26], [27]. Therefore, various surfactants and polymers are commonly applied to stabilize these metal colloids. Although the stability is considered to be a crucial property of the AgNPs dispersions, there is still lack of studies employing its tests. There are many reports are available where conventional surfactant used as capping agent. There are a few reports on the Gemini surfactants role on the synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs). Therefore, it is very important to understand role of the Gemini surfactants on the synthesis of NPs. In the present work, we report the role of Gemini surfactant, 1, 6-Bis (N, N-hexadecyldimethylammonium) adipate, 16-6-16 (using as capping agent) on the synthesis of AgNPs.

The dimeric or gemini surfactants are made up of two amphiphilic moieties which connected at the level of the head groups or very close to the head groups by a spacer group [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34]. Gemini surfactants have two hydrophilic groups and two hydrophobic groups per molecule, rather than the single hydrophilic and single hydrophobic group of conventional surfactants. The greater efficiency and effectiveness of geminis (viz., surface activity) 10 to 100 times more efficient, lower CMC (CMC is at least one order of magnitude lower, solubilization (better solubilizing), low Kraft temperature, etc.) over comparable conventional surfactants [34] make them more cost-effective as well as environmentally desirable.

However, there are a few report usages of Gemini surfactants to synthesis the nanostructured materials. Henceforth, it is worth to investigate the impact this capping agent towards controlling the nucleation and growth of AgNPs. In this present study is aimed at the evaluation of the stabilization effects of Gemini surfactants on nearly monodisperse AgNPs. As a result, we observed an excellent stability in the Gemini surfactants capped AgNPs. The synthesized materials were characterized by UV–vis spectroscopy, DLS, Zeta potential (ZP), XRD, HRTEM and EDX techniques in order to investigate their optical, morphological and elemental composition. Finally, antibacterial efficiency of the synthesized AgNPs was carried out against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterium, viz. Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, respectively

Section snippets

Materials

Silver nitrate (≥99.9%), sodium borohydride (≥99%) and other fine chemicals were purchased from Sigma, India. The Gemini surfactant, 1, 6-Bis (N, N-hexadecyldimethylammonium) adipate, (16-6-16) see Fig. 1 was synthesized. Milli-Q water (1–2 μS cm−1 at 25 °C) was used as a solvent throughout the experiments.

Bacterial culture

Escherichia coli (MTCC 062) and Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC-3160) were purchased from the Institute of Microbial Technology, India, and grown in nutrient agar (0.3% beef extract, 0.5% peptone

Synthesis and characterization of AgNPs

Silver nanoparticles were synthesized according to the method described in the experimental section, the colloidal solution turned golden brown after adding NaBH4 indicating formation of the AgNPs. UV–vis spectroscopy is one of the most widely used techniques for structural characterization of AgNPs. The optical absorption spectrum of metal NPs is dominated by the SPR which exhibits a shift towards the red end or blue end depending upon the particle size, shape, state of aggregation and the

Conclusions

We report the effect of capping agent Gemini surfactant (16-6-16) during the synthesis of AgNPs. The synthesized AgNPs were characterized by UV–vis spectroscopy, XRD, HRTEM, and EDX in order to investigate the morphologies and chemical compositions of AgNPs. UV–vis spectra show the characteristic localized surface plasmon absorption peak (LSPR) of the synthesized AgNPs (λmax) at 400 nm. In this report, size of the gemini surfactant (16-6-16) capped AgNPs is varied from 2 nm to 17 nm showing

Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to the financial support from project STRAIT (CSC 0201) of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India (CSIR-CLRI Communication No. 1223). One of the authors T. Parandhaman acknowledges UGC for Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship.

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